Vegetasei
by Torii-Butterfly
Summary: A shortish 'What If' answering the question on 'What if Goku had never been sent to Earth as a baby'. This is my first fic that I've poted here, people, so please, R&R D


Vegetasei

Kakarot sat around impatiently, tapping his left foot slightly, waiting. Why had his father decided to keep him here on Vegetasei? Why the sudden change of heart? It wasn't anything to do with his strength, and he knew it. He had been a weakling warrior with a lowly power level as Bardock had reminded him all too frequently, and yet, here he was. A fifteen year old warrior with the privilege of being granted a place on the King's imperial guard, and the official sparring partner to the prince of the entire Saiya-jin race! Why? Was it fate? He had all these questions but still no answers. Ten years worth of questions and ten years worth of waiting for the answers that would never come.

"Boy! Where are you? Boy!" Vegeta's distinct voice echoed through the corridors, shattering the unusual silence like glass.

"Kakarot!" He yelled. Another unusual occurrence. Vegeta calling him by his name.

"Coming, Vegeta! Bloody hell! Give a guy a break!" He guessed that this was what had granted him the honour of being the prince's sparring partner – he had the unusual ability to stand up to the future ruler of his race. And his power. His amazing power level was enough to floor the prince, even though Vegeta was five years older than him and had royal blood in his veins. This was always the point where he had to question; did blood ties really matter?

Vegeta readied himself in his usual stance, royal elegance shining through.

"Are you ready, boy?" Vegeta said calmly, as Kakarot readied himself too. He nodded, slightly smirking at the prince as he did so. He was going to prove what third class warriors were made of. Vegeta started towards the teenager in front of him, but Kakarot was too fast. He dodged, and the prince only ended up punching the wall with all the force in him. _Good sport…all in good sport _he told himself. Fighting was a game, just like power. Politics was a game, too. All of it was a game.

"Not quite as up to scratch as we should be, eh Vegeta?" Kakarot taunted. He didn't know why he did it. It was more of a reaction, in strange sort of way. Vegeta tried to punch him again, but it was still useless. _What is it with this boy? He's only a low class guard! How in hell can he be more powerful than me? _

Within the matter of three hours, Vegeta and Kakarot were both worn out, panting for every rare breath possible.

"Shall we call it a day, princey?" Kakarot gasped in between breaths.

"Sure…I'll see you after the next mission, though." Kakarot nodded. But he had yet another query. Vegeta had any amount of barbs to use against him. Kakarot knew perfectly that he was a bastard, so why had Vegeta never used it during their battle? Kakarot had used every barb he knew, and expected it to come back at him, but it hadn't. So why? _Shut up Kakarot, you bastard! You ask too many questions_. _Just shut up!_

Kakarot turned over in his bed, covered only by a few linen sheets. He sat bolt upright and put one hand to his torso, then withdrew – he had been sweating. The night terrors that hadn't troubled him since he had been thirteen years of age were coming back. Terrors of that face. So full of malice and evil, and could only belong to one being – Frieza. He had threatened to destroy Vegetasei once before, but that threat had lain dormant…so why was he suddenly having these 'visions' he supposed, of Frieza. He told himself to quit it, and to get back to sleep. It was just a night terror…that was all…that was all that it was…just a terror…

Morning at last. Kakarot awoke from the second part of his sleep, which had been successfully dreamless, and uncovered his naked body – only the imperials were allowed night robes, and he was not an imperial just yet. He hauled himself up from the hard mattress he had been sleeping upon, and made his way slowly to where his armour was kept. His room was pretty secure from the rest of the rooms in the palace. Because of his status as a member of the King's guard, he was allowed a room in the palace, but only a small one at most, and certainly wasn't allowed any of the luxuries as those of the imperials, as he constantly reminded himself. He roughly grabbed the same armour as he always wore, then showered quickly and dressed. He was late for the morning call already.

"Shit!" He gasped when he saw what time it was. The mission would begin shortly, and he was late.

"Kakarot!" The commander yelled, as Kakarot arrived, out of breath, and a stitch gnawing painfully in his chest. The commander moved onto the next soldiers. Kakarot chanced a glance at his father, who returned the glance, but returned swiftly to his previous stance of straight back and head cocked upwards. Kakarot followed suit. The spacepods took off, all heading for the same destination – the planet Ichenenosei.

Fifty craters. Fifty craters were left in the ground once the Saiya-jins landed. The Icheneno-jin had no idea what had hit them. Kakarot heard a few of the warriors curse pretty badly.

"Jeez," He muttered, referring to his scouter for power levels, "Frieza couldn't have picked a weaker planet, could he?" However, he could not have been more wrong. He looked around himself disgustedly at the shivering Icheneno-jin. He laughed at the chicken-weaklings. _Stupid prats _he thought. They were no match for the Saiya-jin, and the most comical part was that they weren't even attempting to fight. Kakarot heard Bardock laugh through the icy silence, and then they charged forwards, the battle beginning.

As Kakarot stared around the battlefield, he noted how the once sandy ground was now stained with blood. Not just of the Icheneno-jin, but of the Saiya-jin as well. He looked down…Bardock was lying there, a fatal scar stretching the full length of his stomach.

"Father!" Kakarot yelled, as he made his way to the place where his father's blood soaked the otherwise bone-dry ground.

"Kakarot…" Bardock uttered to his son, "I'm…proud…of you…" He winced with pain, and clutched his stomach.

"Don't die!" Kakarot yelled, "DON'T DIE!"

"I…I'm…sorry…sorry that I…couldn't give you…a better…life…" Bardock was barely audible above the noise, but that didn't matter. Kakarot could hear him, and that was all that mattered.

"FATHER!" Kakarot screeched as his father's ki energy disappeared. The battle seemed to stop momentarily, as if waiting for Kakarot to overcome his father's death. The diamond tears were stinging in the corners of his eyes, and he could feel them, but he could not let even one escape – Saiya-jins didn't cry. He couldn't hold it in any longer. He only managed to let one salty tear escape before it happened.

"You fucking idiots!" He began, "You'll pay for what you've done! YOU WILL PAY!" His rage exploded in the form of a blinding light. He panted for breath and lifted his bowed head, but…

His hair had turned an amazing, brightly shimmering golden colour, and his eyes the most intense shade of aquamarine that would ever be seen by many of the warriors gathered there. That wasn't all, however. The power that he was radiating was the most in comprehendible ever experienced. Many of the scouters shattered at the power level, well over one million – he had become a Super Saiya-jin. Kakarot had a sudden feeling of adrenaline pumping through his Saiya-jin veins. But he had to avenge Bardock, first. He had to destroy the Icheneno-jin, for what they had done to his father.

The ground was full of corpses. Some decapitated, some mauled so terribly none would have thought it possible.

"That ought to teach them, the wankers." Kakarot mumbled as he powered down. He had had so much power coursing through him; he had lost control of himself. He would always remember how he tore the head off of one of the swines, and blasted the body into oblivion, leaving only the head lying there on the ground. Another he had speared with his hand, and then mauled its head, just to prove his point.

"C'mon." he beckoned to the others, now back in his normal form. They followed, apparently too scared not to. As they made their way back to their spacepods, one of Kakarot's previous sparring partners caught up with him. At only fourteen years of age, he was a pretty good warrior himself.

"Remind me never, EVER to piss you off!" He murmured to Kakarot. Kakarot acknowledged his comment by a simple wave of the hand before crouching down, and climbing into his spacepod.

Kakarot awoke once more the following night. He was still having the terrors. The terrors haunted always by Frieza's face. The same, cold, malicious laughter was still ringing in Kakarot's ears. Frieza had been destroying the planet Vegetasei, but he, Kakarot, had not been there. Why had he not been there? _You're doing it again, bastard…you're asking questions…and questions on the planet Vegetasei never get answered. _Kakarot had to force himself to stop it. Only Saiya-jin babies had night terrors. Third class Saiya-jin babies. He then had to remind himself that he too was once a third class Saiya-jin baby. _Stop thinking, bastard, and get back to sleep!_

It was time for the next sparring match with Vegeta. Kakarot thought nothing of it – it would simply be the same as all of the sparring matches prior to this, right? If this thought had crossed his mind for more than a second, he would have been so very sadly mistaken. He wore new armour this time, as the armour that he had worn yesterday was drenched with blood that would take an eternity to wash out.

"Kakarot!" Vegeta yelled, his holler accompanied by the familiar echo. Kakarot was there at an instant.

"Ready to spar, Vegeta?" Kakarot questioned. Vegeta shook his head.

""Lord Frieza has requested you presence." He said quietly, in an extremely un-Vegeta-ish way. The prince was always so loud, proud and outgoing that it was strange to hear him speaking below at least twenty-seven decibels!

Kakarot arrived at Frieza's chamber to hear the lizard's footsteps, pacing the room up and down. He had learned that, with Frieza, you were not to do ANYTHING unless told to do so. So he waited. He waited there for what seemed like hours, but it was actually one of the shortest lengths of time that he had had to wait in all of his life.

"Boy. You may enter now." Frieza's icy voice drifted out to greet him. Kakarot swaggered in to the large suite, bowed before Frieza, and sat down on an armchair – way too large for Frieza himself to fit in.

"I would like to congratulate you on your excellent performance on Ichenenosei." This wasn't it. It could not possibly be all of it. Frieza would not congratulate a lowly soldier such as himself. _You're doing it again, bastard. You're thinking too much. Just let it go…what will come will come._

"However," The sudden sharpness of Frieza's voice made Kakarot wake up to the foul smell of reality, "I have heard…things…of your extermination of the entire race of the Icheneno-jin." Kakarot nodded. Frieza would be the one asking the questions soon, not himself.

"How would you like to confirm this?" Kakarot could smell the fear being emitted with Frieza's every word. He would not give Frieza the satisfaction of peace of mind. Frieza forced his face towards Kakarot's until they were standing nose to nose.

"WELL? WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED OUT THERE? I'M WAITING!" Frieza's putrid breath smelled heavily of a strange wine. One that the likes of Kakarot's lips had never so much as ventured forth to taste.

"I…I don't know, Lord Frieza." Kakarot answered. Frieza was not pleased. Many had told him that he had become a Super Saiya-jin, but he did not have much recollection of his transformation. _What am I supposed to do? If he really is a Super Saiya-jin that means that he is more powerful than me. And if those stupid monkeys ever grow smart enough to rebel against me, he's going to be their weapon of choice. I have to destroy them. I have to destroy them all. _

"Well, what did he want?" Vegeta asked once Kakarot had arrived.

"He…he wanted to know about what happened on the planet Ichenenosei…" Vegeta tried to cut into him, but Kakarot raised a hand to silence him.

"They…they killed Bardock…and I swore revenge against them…and then…I felt power like I never had done before. I killed them all, without knowing or caring what I was doing…and their blood spilled everywhere. I loved it. I revelled in it…and I wanted more…I wanted their whole fucking planet to be soaked with the blood of the wankers." His eyes lit up insanely once he had gotten past talking about his father's death. It suddenly hit Vegeta just what Kakarot had transformed into…

"The first Super Saiya-jin…in over one thousand years…shit…you did it…you actually did it…I don't fucking believe this…you, Kakarot! A third class fighter…a Super Saiya-jin!" Vegeta motioned to Kakarot to sit down. Kakarot knew better than to disobey his prince. He sat down, facing Vegeta, and trying to avoid those furious ebony eyes.

"Why did it have to be you?" Vegeta asked quietly. "Why the fuck did it have to be you?" he asked again, his anger rising now.

"Vegeta…I didn't mean…I was furious after they killed Bardock…I was really pissed off…I didn't do it on purpose…I just wanted them all dead…" Kakarot was desperately trying to excuse his display of power.

"You, Kakarot are a low class warrior. You're fifteen, and I'm twenty, you're a bastard and a pauper, and I'm a prince! I am the prince of the entire fucking Saiya-jin race! It should be me who became a Super Saiya-jin, not you Kakarot! So why? How in hell did you manage to do it? How in fucking hell did you manage to do it?" Kakarot could clearly see that his prince was enraged. If he had thought that Vegeta was mad, he was wrong. Vegeta was livid, and his recent display of barbs and curses had just proven it.

For the third night in a row, Kakarot had experienced night terrors. Again, it was the same as always – all of his terrors involved Frieza. But this had been more disturbing than most. He had only been able to watch as a raging fire danced the hallways, destroying every Saiya-jin in its path. Even the newborns…everyone. These terrors were beginning to bother him. They were not just terrors. Something was telling him that he was having visions; visions of what was going to happen to Vegetasei. A Saiya-jin would never admit it, because of their pride, but Kakarot admittedly felt scared. All that he had ever lived for; all that he had ever known…all of it could soon be gone. _Well, Kakarot, you are a Super Saiya-jin, right? You can take Frieza anytime you want. The twat'll never know what hit him!_ But _was_ he a Super Saiya-jin. It could have simply been a one off, and if it was, that meant the planet was doomed.

Kakarot awoke again the following morning, but he felt as if he was carrying a great burden around with him. Again, he uncovered his naked body, but this time he noticed something else. He had an enormous scar across the upper left-hand corner of his torso, which looked as if it had been freshly made. He swiped at the scar and then smelt the blood that was left on his hand – it was his blood, and it was fresh. How had he obtained this bizarre injury? He would have noticed it before if somebody had physically mauled him during the night.

"What the fuck is happening to me?" Kakarot yelled. His yell could be heard throughout the palace. He must have sounded fearful, because Vegeta had made his way to his chamber. Kakarot would have never predicted that he would do this. Not after the way he had cursed his transformation the previous day. Saiya-jins didn't care about modesty. A body was a body, and it was used in the same way as any other everyday item. Vegeta saw the scar on Kakarot's chest and smirked, but Kakarot simply stared at him, awed that the prince would not tale this seriously.

"I didn't injure myself." Kakarot said.

"Well who did it, then? Frieza?" Vegeta replied cynically.

"I've been having visions of that twat, ever since our first sparring match of the year. I don't know what's going on, but every time, he's been destroying Vegetasei." The prince's face dropped at the final statement.

"D…destroying?" He stuttered. He could not believe what he was hearing. Kakarot nodded all the same.

"Get dressed, Kakarot!" He snapped. "I'm sure there's a planet out there that needs seeing to." Kakarot did as he was told to do, and then followed Vegeta to where his ruler waited for the pauper.

"What exactly do these terrors represent?" He asked, and Kakarot only told him of what he had seen.

"I've told you before, Vegeta. All I saw was Frieza destroying Vegetasei. That's all." Vegeta looked stonily at the boy in front of him, and then at his own hands.

One hour later, the prince was being dragged down the hall by Frieza's two main henchmen – Dodoria and Zarbon.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing, you twats?" He spat as they continued to drag him.

"Now, now, prince Vegeta, I shouldn't be ungrateful if I were you. After all, lord Frieza is saving your life." Zarbon said mockingly, although Vegeta knew that he wasn't joking.

"Are you pissing me about or something? How the hell can Frieza be saving my life?"

"You'll see soon enough. Frieza has his 'reasons'" Zarbon finished, as if this closed the matter.

Meanwhile, Kakarot was chained, with only the meanest of cloth to protect his modesty. Frieza was pacing the cell, explaining to Kakarot his fate.

"I never thought that you monkeys could ever manage it, you know. But now that you, Kakarot, have become a Super Saiya-jin, you have become stronger than me…and that is why I have to destroy this planet. You'll be out of my hair, but that won't stop any others from doing it. However…I'm pretty sure that the prince can be easily…persuaded…" Frieza continued to pace.

"You…" Kakarot was lost for words "You fucking twat!" Kakarot yelled so suddenly that Frieza stopped pacing. The lizard didn't say a word; he simply stood there, staring into the furious aquamarine eyes of Kakarot, who had just transformed.

"You nasty monkey!" He yelled, as he started towards the chained figure. _This is it…_thought Kakarot…_all those things that you could have done…you're going to die a virgin…and a bastard…and single…_Frieza's had stopped short of Kakarot's tail. Then the lizard grabbed the most sensitive part of his whole body. His furious grip tightened, until Kakarot was screaming with agony, when finally the monster wrenched and ripped his tail off. Pain beyond pain. Kakarot's hair ceased to glow and returned to its precious state of midnight black. His closed eyes dissolved back in to their intense shade of black, still keeping his Saiya-jin ferocity. Frieza turned and stalked out, still holding Kakarot's tail. From what he knew next, his face was being slapped with an amazing force; one which he recognised well.

"V…Vegeta…" He uttered, still weak.

"C'mon Kakarot, we don't have much time…" Vegeta said quietly…soothingly almost. He dragged Kakarot to where the spacepods were lined up and threw him into one roughly. Though he couldn't see much, h could tell that Vegeta had given him some new armour and programmed the ship ready. The remarkable thing about a Saiya-jin spacepod was that it contained an automatic healing device. The capsules sped in direction unknown to their occupants, just as the planet Vegetasei exploded in a display of orange and red sparks.

A tear escaped from Vegeta's eye as he saw all that he had once represented disappear into nothingness. A gaping hole left in the Galaxy, as well as a void in the pit of his stomach. Where he was going Vegeta did not know. And to be perfectly honest, he didn't care. They were all gone. All of the Saiya-jins except for himself and Kakarot were dead, and that was all there was to it. Only nothingness remained where there should have been home. Only a gaping hole of emptiness left in the universe.

Kakarot could feel the sadness welling up inside of him, too. Although none of his family had been left on Vegetasei, he still had his home. And his race. And now that the both of them were homeless orphans, all that they could do was travel the universe, doing what they did best…and ignoring the gnawing pains of emptiness that could never be satisfied.

END

The Journey:

A Sequel to Vegetasei

In the endless inky sky, every single planet looked the same. Vegeta didn't care. He and Kakarot sat there, hungry. Not for food, however. No. They hungered for the race that Frieza had destroyed. They hungered not to be the last known survivors of the race that Frieza had destroyed. They hungered for the life that Frieza had destroyed. But it was no good dwelling upon the past. There was no way out of this new, and completely pointless life. What did they care if there were plenty of helpless planets in the universe to destroy when the Saiya-jin had destroyed not only for pleasure but they had also done it because they had had no choice under the rule of Frieza? What did they care if there was nothing left for them? The answer to that was unbelievably simple. Neither of them wanted to let on to the other that they sorely missed life as it should have been. They were trying their best to ignore any feeling that may cross their minds, however painful. The only planet that they had conquered had not even been a challenge to them. All Kakarot had managed to gain was some stolen armour which he had obtained from one of the guards, because Frieza had only provided him with a small loincloth, in the hope that he would have died, anyway. Kakarot complained ceaselessly about this armour, only to have Vegeta standing by, laughing or with a witty comment on the end of his tongue.

"Man…this armour! It's…" Kakarot had moaned as soon he tried the armour on.

"What's wrong? Not your colour?" Vegeta had replied sarcastically to Kakarot's complaint. Kakarot paid no attention to the prince's comments usually,


End file.
